In recent years there has been a proliferation of searchable data available to the general public via the Internet. The area of medical service providers is no exception. Today, users can go on line and submit search requests relating to a wide variety of medical services, and receive a variety of information. A user can access a medical service provider search site and enter a variety of search parameter values including, for example: a medical service provider type, a geographic region, and a variety of personal preferences. A retrieval engine operating in association with the search site applies search parameter values specified by the user to a database comprising information for a population of medical service providers represented by data record contents of a medical service provider database. An example of one such medical service provider database and retrieval engine is described in Rothschild et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,694,441, entitled “Method for Determining the Quality of a Professional.”
People generally place a high degree of value on their health. When a person consults a medical service provider search site for listing of service providers for diagnosing and/or treating a particular type of ailment, it is important that the provided information instill a high level of confidence that a medical service provider selected from the rendered information can meet particularized needs and/or expectations of the patient. Thus, when a patient consults a particular medical service provider identified in ranked results provided by a search site, it is important that the actual visit experience meets the user's expectations created by the provided information—especially if the selected service provider was identified as a best match for the particular patient based upon the particularized search parameter values submitted by the user.
A number of challenges are faced by medical service provider search sites with regard to providing results that match patient expectations. One challenge is to acquire sufficient amounts of information; both type and quantity, about medical service providers to ensure sufficient granularity/precision with regard to defining desired service provider candidates. Another challenge is to ensure the information relied upon to render ranked match results accurately characterizes the skills, traits and reputations of subject service providers.
For purely objective criteria, finding and ranking matches is straight-forward. For example, a request for ranked search results for a service provider closest to a specified location is very straight-forward and easy to confirm. Moreover, it is highly likely that a patient's expectations will be met in cases where provided information pertains to purely objective criteria. However, selecting a doctor is rarely, if ever, a purely objective determination.
A substantial challenge, when providing requested medical service provider information, exists with respect to providing medical service provider information meeting subjective expectations of requestors. Known medical service provider information sources (e.g. retrieval engines and information sites) support a variety of objective factors that operate as proxies for subjective evaluations and identification of desired individual medical service providers for particular patient needs. However, actual subjective evaluations of medical service providers arise from a combination of factors that cannot possibly be acquired and maintained in any reasonably sized database.
User satisfaction with medical service provider information acquired in response to user-submitted requests is closely tied to the ability of the information provider to render provider information that closely aligns with user expectations created by the provided information (e.g., provider ratings and quality descriptions). It is readily apparent that designers of a medical service provider information source/site face significant challenges when designing and implementing the medical service provider information source/site that meets subjective expectations of users. However, such challenges must be overcome since, the value, utility, and ultimately the continued existence of such information sources/sites is inextricably linked to actual user experience meeting expectations created by the provided search results.
To that end, a medical service provider information source/site needs to draw from and expose a broad set of provider description/definition/evaluation parameter types to instill confidence in users that the medical service provider information source/site can render requested information meeting subjective needs and expectations of individual users.